The Measure of a Hero Teaser
by Random Equinox
Summary: A brief summary of what 2014 has in store, plus an excerpt of my next, and long-awaited, fanfic/novelization.


_Author's Note: Hello again to all my reviewers, followers, readers and people who favourited me or at least one of my fanfics and novelizations. As the year draws to a close, I thought I'd take the opportunity to bring everyone up to speed and (hopefully) answer some common questions._

_Am I ever going to cover the events of Mass Effect 3?__ Yes._

_When will the ME3 novelization come out?__ I have no idea._

_Am I ever going to deal with Mass Effect 2: Arrival? __Yes. As for when, see the next question._

_What do I have in store for all of you?_

_The Measure of a Hero, my novelization of ME2: Arrival, will come out next year, starting in the first or second week of January. There will be one, possibly two, original fics after that. In addition, you can probably look forward to another installment of The Prankster's Hero in April. _

_After that, things get a lot hazier. Even with the vast plethora of YouTube links out there, it's going to take time to watch enough to get a sense of what I want to cover and how to write it. So it might take a while before I start posting ME3 chapters. But I will. Someday. _

_To tide everyone over, here's an excerpt from the first chapter of The Measure of a Hero. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everybody! See you in the New Year!_

_Sincerely,_

_Random Equinox_

* * *

**The Measure of a Hero Teaser**

It started off quite innocently. I'd recently thwarted a Cerberus plot, exposed a previously unknown Cerberus operation and acquired some nifty data. Granted, we were still studying said data, but at least we had it and Cerberus did not. With that accomplishment under my belt, I thought I'd pay Liara another visit.

There wasn't much to find this time, unfortunately. Quite a change. Back then, after killing the Shadow Broker and his flunkies, I thought I'd stumbled across the mother lode. A fresh, seemingly renewable source of new tech that I didn't need to hack my way in to find. Constant shipments of minerals that didn't require hours of tedious probing and inevitable sexual jokes. Scintillating conversations with the newest residents of the Shadow Broker base.

Now? No tech, I was lucky if I got any eezo and any chit-chat usually started and ended with 'Shepard, I'm glad you came.' **  
**

So I returned to the Normandy. Made my rounds. Harassed the men and women who had the poor luck to be stuck with me or the poor sense to volunteer for the crazy comedy of errors that passed for my life. I was just about to head up and feed my fish when…

"Commander? You have a new message waiting at your private terminal."

That was Kelly. Hand-picked by TIMmy to tell me when I had new e-mails, inform me of any squadmates who might be having issues and provide psychological counseling whenever… yeah, I never actually saw her do that last part. And local scuttlebutt suggested that she was in no shape to do that. Still having nightmares, apparently. Couldn't blame her, really: if I'd been abducted, trapped in a pod and forced to watch while hundreds of other humans in similar situations got liquefied one by one before my very eyes, I'd probably be having nightmares myself. But she could still perform her other duties as well as any other VI.

Normally, I'd say OK and read it later in my cabin. But there was a light blinking at my terminal. It looked like… wait a second…

It looked like this wasn't an e-mail. It was a live, real-time comm signal. And whoever was on the other end was waiting _right now _for me to pick up. And had been waiting for who knows how long.

Now I was curious. I walked over and opened the comm channel.

"_Incoming message from Admiral Steven Hackett, Alliance HQ," _a bodiless voice told me. Either it was an actual comm officer or Alliance VI voice protocols had substantially improved in the last few years. _"Please stand by."_

I didn't have to wait long. _"Commander Shepard. I need to discuss a sensitive matter with you. Privately."_

Yep, that was Hackett all right. No one else had his deep, gravelly commanding voice. And no one else would contact me for the sole purpose of sending me off on some random assignment. At least I wasn't doing anything important this time. "I'll take this in my quarters, Kelly," I told her.

"I'll transfer the vid-comm call up," Kelly nodded.

Vid-comm? That meant actual real-time visual communication as well as audio. Fancy.

When I got up to my quarters, I tapped a few controls on my terminal. The lights illuminating my model ships slowly went out. A message blinked _**Initializing contact.**_ That's right. The case holding my ships wasn't just there to indulge my penchant for collecting models. It also doubled as a display monitor. I'd only discovered that recently, after my attempts to move a model accidentally flipped a switch and turned it on. Then I discovered that whatever Cerberus flunky set this up had a fondness for one of those music vid channels. No taste. Yet another reason why I left.

But I digress.

A second later, Hackett appeared on the monitor. He cut a stern, commanding figure, the way he was decked out in Alliance dress blues. His mustache and beard—which were trimmed to military standard length, of course—sported a mix of silver and white. A bit early, considering he was in his early fifties, but that only added to his authoritative presence. The scar under his right eye was new, though. At least, I thought it was new. I hadn't seen him in person since… well, before I became a Spectre, actually. Damn, it had been a while.

Before I knew it, I'd stood to attention and threw a salute. Old habits die hard, I guess. "Sir."

Hackett was gracious enough to salute me back. _"Commander. Thank you for your time. I'll keep this brief: we have a deep-cover operative out in batarian space. Her name is Doctor Amanda Kenson. She recently reported that she found evidence of an imminent Reaper invasion. Just this morning, I received word that the batarians arrested her. They're holding her in a secret prison outpost on terrorism charges. I need you to infiltrate the prison and extract her."_

Yep, that was brief all right. And, once again, Hackett was calling me for help. Seemed just like old times. Though the Reaper invasion intel and infiltrating batarian territory bits were new.

"_As a favour to me, I'm asking you to go in alone."_

That was definitely new.


End file.
